The responsibility of the corporate world is changing. From creating value to the shareholders, corporations should do something more to their workers and the communities in which they operate and should sometimes sacrifice profits for making things better for the workers and communities they work for. The best service of shareholder interest undeniably dictates the actions of corporations, but managers are finding that it has become increasingly in the shareholders' interests to serve societal goals that have not traditionally benefited from corporate operations. By participating in socially responsible behaviors, corporations can improve the impression held by members of the various stakeholder groups. The importance of a good impression was underscored by a poll conducted by the Prince of Wales Business Leaders Forum and The Conference Board (2000) that revealed fifty-one percent of North Americans have punished or rewarded a company based on their perceptions of the company's social responsibility, and another sixteen percent have considered doing so.

All the major firms in India are involved in social activities. The Infosys (Through Infosys Foundation), House of TATA, ITC, Wipro, Birlas, and many more big and small are doing things beyond business. Are these activities come up out of moral responsibility or business duty? The large business houses, which use large resources of the country, have responsibility to pay back profits to the stakeholders. The other side of it should also be understood. For example when Microsoft supports education and computerization in schools in developed and developing countries, Noreena Hertz a British critic of corporate citizenship suggests whether Microsoft, by putting computers in schools today will determine how children learn tomorrow.

Consider the example of Amway India. The business of Amway or rather getting distributors in to its fold depends on the corporate image. Indian experience with pyramid structure business (So called chain money programs) has created a lot of negative hype. Amway has to show that it is going to stay and business potential is there. The socially beneficial activities, which Amway is doing, will help to create a positive feeling and generate belief in the direct selling companies.

Studies done in US suggest that corporate citizenship affects major decisions taken by employees, shareholders and other stakeholders. Data shows that individuals who view negative corporate citizenship behaviors would:

• Consider switching to another company's products and services: 91%
• Speak out against the company to family/friends: 85%
• Refuse to invest in that company's stock: 83%
• Refuse to work at the company: 80%
• Boycott the company's products and services: 76%

• News stories/editorials: 51%
• Corporate Web sites: 36%
• Annual reports: 30%

• In 1993: 85%
• In 2002: 92%

• In 1993: 66%
• In 2002: 84%

The image generated by a company helps in getting the better employees, more investments and easier functioning in the society. Most of the corporate involved in socially beneficial activities have publicized them through media and their own websites.

The work foundation of Britain has found that companies can improve their retaining and hiring talented staff if they recognize and support employee home needs and pay more attention to environmental and community concerns. The study also found that employers without a good record on corporate ethics are likely to lose staff in the next 12 months. While only 10% of employees leave due to lack of good pay packet almost one third chose to leave due to unethical practices and lack of concern of organizations towards social causes.

Many organizations are already taking accountability and transparency to next level by issuing corporate citizenship reports that outline in detail the economic, social and environmental impact of everything they do and sell. This is part of good corporate governance, which is of primary concern after widespread scams across countries.

A good corporate governance regime is central to the efficient use of corporate capital. Good corporate governance also helps to ensure that corporations take into account the interests of a wide rage of constituencies, as well as of the communities within which they operate, and that their boards are accountable to the company and the shareholders. This, in turn, helps to assure that corporations operate for the benefit of society as a whole. It helps to maintain the confidence of investors - both foreign and domestic - and to attract more long-term capital*.

Corporate citizenship in India was inbuilt in the corporate ethos of the older business houses. There is a lot of diversity in the concept of corporate citizenship between eastern and western perspectives. A comparison can be shown as follows:

Corporate citizenship practices/ good corporate governance practices of the western countries are practiced by large Indian corporate houses. While cooperatives like Amul gained their legitimacy by business methods which guaranteed social welfare, business houses like TATAs established in the country through unique employee relationship practices, corporate accountability, social concerns etc which were grounded on the corporate citizenship practices. However with the growth of MNCs in the country in the past decade a lot of strategic investments are done in corporate citizenship, which is in sync with the western perspective. Most of the surveys in the country count the large and old corporate in the country as the most respected ones. The respectability of the corporate is measured on basis, which includes employee orientation, community and environmental responsibility, value creation for stakeholders and ethical conduct**. These are grounded on the basic principles of good corporate citizenship.

As a strategic initiative, corporate citizenship can provide considerable assistance in long term functioning of the companies. Citing the example of corporate citizenship of ITC, ITC has developed a defined structure for its corporate governance on the basis of trusteeship, transparency, empowerment and accountability, control and ethical corporate citizenship.

As part of the corporate citizenship contributions, the company has invested in community development activities. Initiative is taken to help farmers to improve skills, farming techniques, crop quality and agricultural productivity***. This in turn would help the company procure varieties of tobacco that enjoy significant demand internationally. The vocational training provided to women and local population near to the factories help ITC to get skilled laborers. We can observe that a company can create conducive environment for its smooth and efficient functioning by strategic corporate citizenship.

A lot of initiatives are taken by the corporate India for reaching out to the stakeholders and improving their perception in the society. However, compared to the western perspective, they are projected as philanthropic initiatives or charity work. An outlook of corporate citizenship as a responsibility towards stakeholders is to be developed in the country. This line of thought is however not emerging in most of the traditional corporate houses and corporate citizenship is not viewed a topic in business schools. With the emergence of corporate citizenship as a strategic tool, more managers and business schools would have to make a turnaround in their approach.